The Coptic Martyrs

The Coptic Orthodox Church has declared “martyrs” the 21 Copts slaughtered by ISIS for being Christians. Their feast day will be February 15, the day they died on the beach in Libya. From Radio Vaticana:

In an interview with Christian channel SAT-7 ARABIC on Wednesday, Beshir Kamel, brother of two of the Coptic martyrs, even thanked the Islamic State for including their declaration of faith in the videos before killing them.

“ISIS gave us more than we asked when they didn’t edit out the part where they declared their faith and called upon Jesus Christ. ISIS helped us strengthen our faith,” he said.

Beshir said that he was proud of his brothers Bishoy and Samuel, saying that their martyrdom was “a badge of honor to Christianity.”

Kamel’s interview with SAT 7-ARABIC went viral, receiving over 100,000 views within hours of its posting online. When asked what his reaction would be if he saw an Islamic State militant, Kamel recalled his mother’s response.

“My mother, an uneducated woman in her sixties, said she would ask [him] to enter her house and ask God to open his eyes because he was the reason her son entered the kingdom of heaven,” Beshir said.

I also struck by the unnamed worker and thought of the passage from Sirach 44:8-115:

Some of them have left behind a name,
so that others declare their praise.
But of others there is no memory;
they have perished as though they had never existed;
they have become as though they had never been born,
they and their children after them.
But these also were godly men,
whose righteous deeds have not been forgotten;
their wealth will remain with their descendants,
and their inheritance with their children’s children.
Their descendants stand by the covenants;
their children also, for their sake.
Their offspring will continue forever,
and their glory will never be blotted out.
Their bodies are buried in peace,
but their name lives on generation after generation.
The assembly declares their wisdom,
and the congregation proclaims their praise.

Here’s a litany from website of the Anchoress. I’m not certain who composed it.

+Holy Martyr Milad Makeen Zaky, pray for us, and for the whole world,
+Holy Martyr Abanub Ayad Atiya, pray for your ISIS murderers,
+Holy Martyr Maged Solaimain Shehata, pray for their salvation,
+Holy Martyr Yusuf Shukry Yunan, pray for the release of their all their captives,
+Holy Martyr Kirollos Shokry Fawzy, pray for all in the path of ISIS,
+Holy Martyr Bishoy Astafanus Kamel, pray for the displaced, for those made refugees by ISIS,
+Holy Martyr Somaily Astafanus Kamel, pray for the protection of our Holy Lands and our history,
+Holy Martyr Malak Ibrahim Sinweet, pray for those who act now in resistance against ISIS,
+Holy Martyr Tawadros Yusuf Tawadros, pray for those in immediate danger from forces of evil,
+Holy Martyr Girgis Milad Sinweet, pray for those infected with the virus of hatred and extremism,
+Holy Martyr Mina Fayez Aziz, pray for families being challenged, throughtout the world, by ISIS,
+Holy Martyr Hany Abdelmesih Salib, pray aid workers may draw together, unmolested, to give assistance,
+Holy Martyr Bishoy Adel Khalaf, pray for the targeted clergy and religious of the Near East churches,
+Holy Martyr Samuel Alham Wilson, pray for all people of good will, in every religion, every nation,
+Holy Martyr Whose name we do not know — you “Worker from Awr village” — pray for those in leadership, whose names we know all too well, that their motives may be purified of political intrigue, and for their salvation,
+Holy Martyr Ezat Bishri Naseef, pray for Jews, throughout the world, chosen of God and so despised,
+Holy Martyr Loqa Nagaty, pray for the “two lungs” of Christianity, East and West, to breath together,
+Holy Martyr Gaber Munir Adly, pray for the illumination of that which is All-Good,
+Holy Martyr Esam Badir Samir, pray that in beholding it, we will wish to serve it,
+Holy Martyr Malak Farag Abram, pray for the generation in power, that their egos may be put aside and their hearts might be opened to the Way, the Truth and the Life,
+Holy Martyr Sameh Salah Faruq, pray for the generations to come.

O New Martyrs, through a malevolent force as old as Eden you now number among the ancient holy ones; keep us particularly in your prayers, as once again we are focused on the mysterious lands where humanity first came into being, and into knowing, and where all will finally be revealed. Pray that we may put aside all that is irrelevant to the moment and, looking forever to the East, prepare our spirits for the engagements into which we may be called, whether we live amid these places of ancient roads and portals, or in the most modern of dwellings.

Mary, the God-bearer, pray for us,
Saint Michael the Archangel, pray for us,
Saint John the Forerunner, pray for us,
All Holy Men and Women, pray for us.
Amen, Amen.

Also, I know you are a Francophile and wanted to point out to you this article…the mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, has shut down one of Paris’s main libraries without explanation…..(you will recall she threatened to sue fox about the “no go” zones, which are in fact, for real.)

Thanks for posting this, Rod. I’ll add them and their loved ones to my prayers. As Christians, this is what we are called to do should we be tested. I pray I’ll have their conviction should I be put to the same test.

Someone with more knowledge of what occurred (I won’t watch the video) can correct me if I’m mistaken, but I don’t believe these men were told to renounce their faith in Christ, or be killed. Their manner of heroic and holy death makes them Confessors rather than Martyrs unless the specific condition above was evidenced. That could have happened before the taping but as far as I know, no one has suggested that it did.

In the Catholic calendar of saints, Aug. 30 is traditionally the feast of Sts. Felix and Adauctus. They were early 4th-century martyrs whose story has become much encrusted with legend, but the basic story is that St. Felix was a Roman priest who was martyred for not offering pagan sacrifices. As he was being led to execution, another man came forward and professed himself a Christian, and the two were then martyred together. Since the other man’s name was not known, he came to be known as Adauctus, which means something like “added on.”

SAF, surely you’re not asking whether the Coptic Church knows the definition of martyr. There is no question that these martyrs earned their crowns. To be killed in hatred of the faith is among the criteria for martyrdom.

I haven’t watched the video (and won’t) but according to published reports, the narrator of the video states that they were murdered because they “refused to give up their unbelief” (i.e. to abandon Christianity and convert to Islam), and several of them can be heard praying aloud to Jesus Christ as their deaths approached.

If that is an accurate characterization of what is on the video, then it is clear to me that these men died as martyrs for Jesus Christ.

No need to put martyrs in quotations…they were killed because they were Christians, they died witnessing to Christ, they’re martyrs without irony.

“Tell me martyrs, from where did your faith come? What seminary did you attend? What monastery did you go to? What was your clerical rank? Tell me how you died with Jesus on your lips that I may learn your faith….”

Note that one of the Martyrs was from Chad and was not a Copt–hence, the one darker face in the icon. What is surfacing now is that he hadn’t been a believer but was captured with the Copts. When he saw the faith of the Copts, he willfully joined them in martyrdom and was granted a baptism of blood. There are countless such stories in the accounts of the martyrdoms of the first Christian centuries.